opinionated alchemist

Excuse my Star Wars reference here... but it quite obvious, that you can't really say, that the industry is with the force (dammit - again a Star Wars reference) I have read yesterday a very interesting article in German on Trinklaune.de , when I browsed my Feedly posts. After RSS standard was dropped by Safari and other browser, I recommend Feedly to keep in touch with your favorite blogs. Anyway- the article states, that a lot of rums were chemically tested, and most rums contained significant quantities of sugars, but also glycerine and vanillin. This obviously created some controversy- but the most disturbing thing is, that the producer downplay these results. You might ask, why this is a big deal!? I am not complaining because of health reasons. Yes, sugar is bad- but so is ethanol. It is more about lies and perception. You have to understand, that sugar is alternating significantly the sensory quality of alcohol. I found a great experiment on rumproject.com , which s

When I went recently for shopping for booze, a couple of products just stick out. There was Ferdinand Quince Gin (which is rather a liqueur - didn't tried it yet - but as soon as I do, I will definitely post it here) - and there was Plymouth Navy Strength. Truth has to be told: I was always a bit bored by the normal Plymouth. They usually give you the whole story, that Plymouth is a specific gin, made with softer water (...), but at the end, it taste like a London dry gin, if nobody tells you otherwise and its rather "pathetic" strength of just above 41% pales against my preferred gins. I have to honest: I am a bit "concerned" about the whole gin craze. I do get it: gin is more flavourful than vodka; and it is great to have a couple of different styles of gins in your bar. But do we need gin bars? And/or do we need a dozen or more different gins? Is it more smoke and mirrors than anything else? I would say yes! And yes - if you compare them sid